It was just like Jack had slipped off the face of the earth.
He hadn't left Percival's house. Percival's mother hadn't seemed to notice anything – sure, once she'd walked in on him showering, but she'd just looked blankly at him and left – and Percival himself had been a happy little boy. Every morning he'd head off to school, smiling even though his living conditions were extremely horrible, and Jack would just watch him leave through one of the few not-boarded up windows.
He'd found an old copy of Dante's Inferno in the back of a closet while he was cleaning – he couldn't stand how messy the place was, he probably wasn't going to get the crayon off of the walls, but he could clean up a bit, right? – and had been powering his way through that, reading a canto at a time and thinking about it. He had his notebook with him, of course, that had been one thing he'd been sure to grab before he'd left, and he often wrote down his thoughts in there. He'd already placed many boys from the island in circles of Hell – Maurice was in with the Flatterers, Roger with the violent against others, and himself… well, Jack hadn't found a place for himself, yet.
Probably Circle Nine with Satan himself. But he hadn't gotten that far yet.
One day, when Percival came back from school, Jack decided that they were going to go out.
Not the best idea Jacky what if your parents see you not that they'd be around here at all because it's BELOW YOU telephone kid is BELOW YOU this house is BELOW YOU it's all so GODDAM BELOW YOU
Jack dug his fingernails into his hands and willed himself to calm down. It wasn't good for him to get so worked up; he didn't know why it happened or really anything about it, it was just that ever since the island he couldn't keep his thoughts straight for more than a few moments. He was fairly certain that he was insane, yes, that's it.
Percival came back from school with a newspaper and a worried expression.
"What?" Jack asked, grabbing Percival by the shoulders. Percival winced and held up the newspaper. Headline, front page, 'BOY KILLS FATHER AND THREE OTHERS; STILL ON RUN.' Jack grabbed the newspaper and scanned the article.
Maurice Machintire, aged fifteen, reportedly went insane…
"No…" Jack said, taking in the 'killed four people' and 'nearly killed one more, but he managed to drag himself to the phone before he bled out' and 'Machintire and his companion, a mental patient with the name of Roger Dressler are still on the loose.' "Shit."
Oh you're screwed now Jacky. You know what they're going to do? They're going to come after you Roger's going to come after you and KILL you if you would've stayed at home this NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED but you FUCKED UP JACK YOU FUCKED UP AND NOW YOU'RE GOING TO DIE
"I'm leaving," Jack said, nodding. "I- I need to go."
"Can I come with you?" Percival asked, looking up at him, hopeful and excited. "I wanna go on an adventure!"
"No- you've got to go to school," Jack said. "If you ever want to get out of poverty, you've got to get a good education and then get a good job. You can't come with-"
"He'll come kill me anyway, you know," Percival said, his eyes clouding over a bit. Jack paused and looked at him. "I know these things. Like I knew who you were! You don't want me to go because I might get killed by Roger. But I bet he'll come kill me anyway. He'll want to kill us all. And when he's done with us, he'll probably kill Maurice, too. Unless…" Percival's forehead scrunched up in concentration. "No… I don't know if he'll kill Maurice. He might not. But he wants to kill you and he will kill me, no matter what."
"How do you-" Jack cut himself off. He didn't want to know. "Fine. If you want to come, pack light and meet me at the front door in five minutes."
Percival smiled and bounced away. Jack could hear him talking to his mother, who didn't say anything in response. Jack briefly wondered where the money for food and other things came from, but decided it didn't matter. Perhaps Percival had a father that sent money. He'd seen Percival go out to do the grocery shopping, so there was that mystery taken care of, but…
Jack that doesn't matter you're leaving anyway and so is he what are you even planning on doing you can't reason with Roger he'll kill you before you get THREE WORDS OUT did you hear me THREE FUCKING WORDS OUT HE'LL MURDER YOU JUST LIKE HE MADE MAURICE MURDER THE OTHERS if you're here you can lock your door at least JESUS CHRIST JACK YOU'RE SO STUPID
Jack shoved The Inferno in his backpack, breaking his train of thought and sending his worries to the back of his mind. Percival appeared a few moments later, dragging his backpack on the floor behind him. Jack rolled his eyes.
"No, put it on so the bottom doesn't tear," he said. Percival looked at him, uncomprehending. Jack sighed and picked up the backpack, fitting it onto Percival's back and adjusting the straps to fit right.
"Thank you," Percival said, smiling up at him. Jack couldn't help but find himself smile back – maybe if he hadn't been so fucked up from that stupid island, he could've been a dad someday.
But now it was too late.
That stupid island had fucked up his life, and there was nothing he could do now but drag Percival Wymes Madison around and try to not get killed.
He had such a great life plan. If he would've stayed home he could've maybe finished out high school and gone on to university and gotten married and had children and don't be delusional Jack what girl would like you do you even like girls you haven't shown interest in one you haven't shown interest in anyone but Ralph no, you hadn't liked Ralph, you admired him, you hated him, you loved him, you hated him, you wanted to murder him but it was all out of love right you were at a delicate time in your life thirteen years old and so was he and he was so PERFECT and everything YOU WANTED TO BE but you weren't he was TALL and BROAD and MUSCULAR and BEAUTIFUL and you were SKINNY and PALE and FRECKLED and UGLY and he had CHARISMA and you had EXPERIENCE LEADING A GROUP and together you could've ruled the island but he just DIDN'T UNDERSTAND you had to HUNT you had to PROVE YOURSELF to him or to the other members of the choir you DIDN'T KNOW
"Jack?"
Percival's voice cut into his thoughts like a knife, and Jack shook his head to clear it. "Yeah," he said. "Let's go."
Percival nodded and the two headed out.
a bit of a shorter chapter but you know
the last chapter was over 3k so it balances out
but next chapter should be interesting
hahaha
